Miss Frost Cracks A Caper: A Nocturne Falls Mystery (Jayne Frost Book 4)

by Kristen Painter

  He scooted forward on the love seat. “So there’s a third guy.”

  “Yeah, and what really sucks is I’m sure he took the jewels out of that apartment while I was there. And I did nothing.”

  “What could you have done?”

  “Frozen him.” Why hadn’t I done that? I sighed. I’d been so concerned about not being discovered.

  “You really think that would have worked based on what happened at the ball? You don’t know what kind of supernatural you’re up against here. I’m glad you didn’t. He could have hurt you. Or worse.”

  I frowned. Greyson’s concern was sweet, but it wasn’t really making me feel any better. I went in for a second truffle.

  Greyson put his feet on the coffee table. “How could Lark’s powers have gone so awry just from being tired? Has that ever happened to you? I would think her powers would be less responsive when tired, not more.”

  I nodded and thought about that. “My powers have never malfunctioned, tired or otherwise. It makes no sense.” I took a hard look at him. “You can’t tell me anything you did in Rome?”

  He shook his head. “It wasn’t a sightseeing trip.”

  “You seem tired.”

  “I am.”

  “And yet, you came here first. That was sweet. Are you going home to get some rest now?”

  He tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling for a second. “I wish. Lucian has a new assignment for me already.”

  “You’re leaving again?”

  “No, it’s a local thing. Apparently, while I was gone, three tourists who’d gone to Insomnia all had their rooms robbed, and Lucian wants me to—”

  “Wait. All of those tourists had gone to Insomnia?”

  “You know about this?”

  “Birdie mentioned it when she told me about Lark DJing at Insomnia, which I don’t love, by the way.”

  “I understand. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

  “I know and it’s fine. Anyway, Birdie didn’t say all the victims had been to Insomnia. Makes sense, though, since she did mention they were all supernaturals. She must not have known they’d all been in the club. Have you added that to the report?” Greyson worked as a part-time deputy, basically on an as-needed basis. He also filled in as the Vampire On Duty. When he wasn’t running super secret missions for Lucian, of course.

  “Not yet. I really did come here straight from the airport.”

  I looked around the office. “Where’s your bag?”

  “I left it right inside the warehouse door. You had to walk right by it.”

  “Huh. Didn’t see it. Shows you how preoccupied I am. But listen, back to Lark working at Insomnia while you were gone.”

  Greyson’s brows bent. “Yes?”

  “Can you find out what nights she DJed there? We could see if the robberies happened then or at another time. Could help us tie her to something.”

  “Or the boyfriend.”

  “Right.” Because one of them, or both more likely, had to be involved in this. I couldn’t figure it any other way. And if that was true, Lark had played me. Again.

  Greyson stood. I’d never seen him look so weary. “I’ll head over there now. I need to give Lucian the full report anyway. He doesn’t like to do that sort of thing over the phone or email.”

  “Can’t you even give me a hint about what you were doing over there?” I got to my feet, sensing he was about to leave.

  Greyson’s half-smile seemed to border on frustration. I guess he was done talking about Rome. “Sorry, Jay. No can do.”

  He put his hand on the door knob, then stopped. “Almost forgot.” He took something from his pocket and handed it to me. “I didn’t have time to wrap it. I hope you like it.”

  It was a picture frame no bigger than a business card with a tiny kick-out stand on the back. The frame was covered in a pattern of vines and leaves all done in the smallest mosaic tiles I’d ever seen. It was clearly an antique and expertly done. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

  He smiled. “I thought you could put a picture of Spider in it.” He leaned over and kissed me. “Talk to you soon, beautiful.”

  “Get some rest first, okay?”

  “Okay.” He left, shutting the door behind him.

  I put the frame on my desk and sat. My conversation with Greyson had only added more fuel to the fire that was Lark’s questionable innocence.

  If the tourists who’d had their rooms burglarized had been at Insomnia while the break-ins happened, how could that be a coincidence in light of the robbery at the ball? Also, if Lark was working, she would have been visible the whole time. No way she could have personally done the burglaries. But it remained to be seen if Lance had been with her the whole time at Insomnia or not. And who was this third man?

  I had no idea. The only thing I could figure out to do was see if Lance had the death mark on him. How did I get him to take his shirt off? I couldn’t exactly bring him clothes the way I had with Lark. Unless new evidence turned up, he’d be released this evening. I guess I could go back to the apartment and try to spy on him…changing.

  I shuddered. I wasn’t into being a creeper. But I couldn’t think of how else to see him shirtless. I groaned and ate another truffle. I really didn’t want to spy on Lance. What I wanted was for the sheriff to get back into that apartment and figure out on his own that there was a third suspect. But how? Would seeing the missing screw on the air vent be enough for him to dust for prints?

  Someone knocked at my door.

  “Come in.”

  It was Juniper. “You okay?”

  “Mostly. What’s up?”

  “Just checking on you. Also found the chocolates in the break room, which are awesome, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Hey—” Inspiration struck. “If you knew a good reason for someone to do something, but you couldn’t tell them about that reason, how else could you get them to do the thing you wanted them to do?”

  Juniper made a face. “Is this some weird new performance report?”

  I laughed. “No, just working through some stuff.”

  Juni stared at the ceiling, eyes squinting in concentration for a few long seconds. Finally, she looked at me again. “Does the answer have to adhere to any moral or ethical codes?”

  I was ready for anything at this point. “Nope.”

  Juni smiled. “I’d lie.”

  With a soft snort, I shook my head. “I love you.”

  “I know.” She grinned. “Back to work.”

  She left as I picked up my cell phone and dialed the sheriff’s department. Birdie answered. “Nocturne Falls Sheriff’s Department. Birdie Caruthers speaking.”

  “Birdie, it’s Jayne. I need to talk to Hank.”

  “Ooo, good timing, I was just about to call you.”

  Setting up another breakfast date could wait. “Birdie, I really need to talk to him now.”

  “See, that’s the thing, Princess. He’s not here. He and a couple of the deputies just headed back out to that apartment Lark and Lance were renting.”

  Was the man a psychic werewolf? My mouth fell open. “How come?”

  “Well…” The tone in Birdie’s voice was a gleeful mix of emotions. It was her standard for when she had a really juicy piece of news. “Lance just ratted Lark out.”

  “What?” This was nuts. “Tell me everything.”

  Birdie laughed. “Turns out, he’s been her pawn the whole time.”

  “In what way?”

  “Seems she’s been using the threat of her magic to force him to steal valuables from people in the crowd at the nightclubs she performs at. She identifies them, then makes Lance do the dirty work. He claims there’s a trail of thefts across Europe that coincide with the dates and locations of all the places she’s DJed.”

  “Insomnia,” I whispered.

  “That’s right,” Birdie confirmed. “How’d you know that?”

  “I just talked to Greyson. So he confessed to stealing all the jewels a
t the ball too?”

  “No, he said she hired another supernatural, one he doesn’t know, to handle all that while she froze everyone.”

  I rolled my eyes. “So what proof is he offering?”

  “Well, Lance told us that everything stolen from those tourists, who happened to be at Insomnia the night before they were robbed, is still in the apartment.”

  That sounded fishy. “How did the sheriff not find it already?”

  Birdie cleared her throat, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “Because she hid the stuff in the air vent.”

  A chill went through me. Whoever had been there had taken that stuff out. The sheriff wasn’t going to find anything. But if I told him I’d been there, if I told him what I’d seen, I was going to be in big trouble. With him and my father. Yeti poop. “Why would Lance do that?”

  “He brokered a deal. The sheriff offered to release him on his own recognizance after he signs a statement promising to testify. He’ll be out as soon as the sheriff confirms what he’s told us.”

  Well, that wasn’t going to happen. There wasn’t anything to find in that air vent. Although I was sure Lance was eager to get out and get that death mark taken care of. That had to be killing him. Literally. “Um, okay, keep me posted on whatever—”

  The squawk of a radio interrupted me, then Birdie followed. “Hang on, Hank’s calling in. Lemme put you on hold.”

  I got up and paced in an effort to shed the nervous energy building up in my system. Was Lance really the kind of guy to be swayed by the threat of magic? I only knew one other fae, Willa, and she was such a strong, independent woman that I’d assumed all fae were like that. Lance, however, was coming off as a big pushover. I mean, why not just leave Lark if he didn’t want to do her dirty work? Why come clean about it now?

  And really, stealing jewelry? Was that what Lark was about? After all her talk about how music and DJing made her so happy? And with her family’s money? Why take such a risk? Was it a thrill thing?

  I blew out a long breath. None of it mattered, really, because they weren’t going to find anything in that air vent. Mystery man number three had cleaned it out.

  Birdie came back on the line. “I better go, Princess. Hank’s on his way back with all kinds of evidence for me to catalog.”

  “All kinds? What does that mean?”

  “All the tourists’ jewelry, plus the charms that were stolen from Willa’s place a year ago, and you’re not going to believe this, but there was a Pocket Pet in there too. Didn’t y’all have one of those lifted from Santa’s Workshop?”

  I stopped pacing, a little dumbstruck. “Yes.” I had a lot to process. “You’re busy. I’ll talk to you later. Thanks.” I hung up and stared at my phone.

  The mystery man hadn’t been taking stuff out of the air vent. He’d been putting it in.

  Lark was guilty. At least it seemed that way. Or someone was doing a bang-up job of framing her. But the chances of her not being involved were slipping away.

  I sat without moving for a while, just letting the idea of her guilt sink in. I don’t know how long I sat there, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of disappointment. Weird, right? Because of my past with Lark, I didn’t expect to feel that way. But I did.

  My disappointment wasn’t just in her, though. It was in myself. For not seeing through her lies. For not figuring out that she was playing me. Again.

  I needed to talk to someone, but I wasn’t sure who. Cooper wasn’t an option. He was so occupied with his mom (and who could blame him?) that he hadn’t been in touch in days. Greyson was probably getting some much-needed sleep. Juniper was busy with work. And I didn’t really want to be the one to break this news to my parents.

  That left Sinclair. I checked the time. It was nearly lunch. Wasn’t that about when he was supposed to be grabbing some sleep himself? I couldn’t bother him.

  Which left me feeling pretty alone. I would have loved to have gone upstairs with my mini-cake and spent the rest of the afternoon snuggled up with Spider, watching dumb movies and stuffing my face.

  But I had two holiday employees arriving and more work to do than you could shake an icicle at. I had responsibilities.

  With a sigh, I picked up the file on top of the stack next to my computer. My phone vibrated, saving me from these inventory sheets for a second longer.

  I saw the caller ID and smiled. “Hey. I didn’t expect to hear from you. Did you get all the doughnuts made?”

  “I did,” Sinclair said. “Got them sold, too. How’s your day going?”

  “Completely nuts. How’s your day going?”

  “Okay. But it would be better if someone had lunch with me.”

  I smiled. “Shouldn’t you be napping?”

  “On an empty stomach? Are you nuts, woman? A man can’t live on doughnuts alone. Maybe you can, but I can’t. I need a burger. Fries. Possibly a milk shake.”

  I laughed. Oh, I needed this. Needed him. “Pick a place. I’m there.”

  “Have you been to Mrs. D’s Dairy Barn?”

  “I don’t even know where that is.”

  “It’s just on the outskirts of town. Between Melworth’s Kitchens and More and that old run-down motel.”

  “The Pinehurst Inn?” I’d heard Birdie talk about it.

  “Yeah, that place. You want to try it? It’s one of those little drive-in joints. I hear they have outstanding burgers, great fries, and milk shakes as thick as concrete.”

  “I feel a little like I’m cheating on Mummy’s, but getting out of town for a bit sounds perfect.”

  “Pick you up in ten.”

  And twenty minutes later, we were standing at the counter of Mrs. D’s Dairy Barn, ordering food that came in baskets. The place looked right out of the fifties (which might have been the last time it was painted), and I couldn’t have been happier. I scored us a table with an umbrella and waited for Sinclair to bring the food over.

  I wasn’t in any rush. The day had turned into one of those surprising fall days with lots of sun and enough warmth that you could almost forget summer was over. I just sat there and enjoyed it, trying to forget the hot mess that was currently going on.

  It was working too, until I saw Lance getting into a sedan with a takeout bag. I couldn’t believe he’d gotten out of the holding cell so quickly. Then I pulled my sunglasses off my head and put them back onto my face for a better look. Hmm. Maybe that wasn’t Lance after all. Unless he’d also shaved off his creepy little goatee.

  The guy in the car had a couple days’ stubble and was paler than Lance. Almost chalky. And he moved like he had arthritis, although he didn’t look old enough.

  “Here you go. Cheeseburgers, fries, a side of fried pickles, one chocolate milk shake for me, and one Dr Pepper float for you.” Sinclair set a large tray of food on the table, momentarily blocking my view while he put my order in front of me.

  When he sat, the sedan and Lance’s facial-hair-free doppelganger had pulled out of the parking lot. I squinted in the direction the car had gone, toward the Pinehurst. That couldn’t have been Lance. Lance had blue hair, that guy’s hair was dark brownish. Stress was messing with my head.

  I smiled at Sinclair and decided to focus on the moment and the company and nothing else. “This looks awesome. Thanks for bringing me here. I needed this.”

  “I thought you might.” He kissed me, something I hadn’t quite expected, but it sure helped me forget about Lark and Lance and all that missing jewelry for a couple of hot seconds. I kissed him back a little, laughing as we broke contact.

  “What’s so funny?”

  I shook my head and picked up a fry. “I like you. A lot.”

  His grin took over his whole face. “I feel the same way about you.” He ate a fry. “Now tell me what’s going on, because until now, you haven’t been the Jayne I’m used to since I picked you up. Something’s bothering you.”

  “You’re sure you want to know?”

  “Dead sure.”

  We ate, and since
he’d asked, I told him about everything that had happened.

  “Of course you’re disappointed. You’d started to think she’d changed. And she hasn’t. You put faith in her. And you were let down, again. It’s a repeat of college. You have every right to feel blue about it.”

  “That’s exactly it. But talking about it has helped. A lot. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” He wiped his hands on one of the paper towels from the roll at the table. These burgers were delicious, but messy. “You think they’ve found the jewelry yet? Your jewelry and Elenora’s, I mean.”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t heard my phone yet, and I’m sure Birdie will call me when they do. If not, I’ll call when I get back to the office.”

  “Lark can’t have fenced those pieces already. They’re too special. Too high end.”

  “She could have had buyers in place already.”

  “True.” He ate another fry. “But how would she have gotten them out of town? She’s been in a holding cell this whole time.”

  “Except for between the time she left the ball and her arrest.”

  “So she had what? Forty minutes A little more? I don’t think that’s enough time to do anything much.”

  “She could have dropped the jewels somewhere.” I picked a sesame seed off the bun.

  “Maybe. But would she really leave that much jewelry just sitting somewhere? Would you?”

  I thought about that. “No. I’d leave them with someone. Which is what she might have done too.”

  “You think there’s someone else? You mean Lance?”

  I hadn’t told Sinclair about the third guy yet, but I’d told him the rest, so why not? Plus, he’d trusted me with the info about his death touch. “Not exactly…” While we finished our meals, I explained what I’d seen and heard at the rental apartment.

  His eyes widened when I was done. “Jayne, that was incredibly dangerous of you. I understand why you did it, but I don’t like it. Have you told the police?”

  “No. Sheriff Merrow told me not to get involved or he’d arrest me for obstruction.”

  Sinclair snorted. “That man talks a good game.”

  “Oh, he’d do it all right. It’s no game.”